Why Gun Tractor Shape

[Mike Cecil]

Hi Lang,

I think there was a thread about this subject some time ago that explained the odd shape. Can't locate it now, but I'm sure Hanno can (if my memory is right!)

Aust field artillery tractors parted from the British 'odd shape' by being 'full bodied' (Nos 1,2,3, with rag roof, Nos 8 & 9 with solid body) but still used the artillery trailer until the end of WW2, when only the No.8 & 9 were retained, and the trailer No.27 Mk.1 was dispensed with.

CCKW353 and 'tractors, tracked' were also employed by Australia as field artillery tractors in the latter period of WW2.

The No.8 & 9 tractors were retained into the 1960s being used by the CMF. (Whereas the Regular Army had moved to the GMC CCKW353 and Studebaker US6 as tractors).

Mike

[Lang]

Bruce

Could be, but why retain it when the 25 pounders had self-contained rings?


Thanks Mike

When I was a 17 year old kid I was a member of 11 Field Regiment (CMF) in Queensland in 1964. Our battery (at Southport) had GMC's while the rest of the regiment had replaced them with Studebakers.

The GMC's had been in use for many years in our unit. I remember watching them from the classroom window (the Army depot was next door to the primary school) when I was only 13 or 14.

The only Blitz I ever saw on any exercise was a long-wheelbase water tanker from the central transport pool, not a regiment vehicle. I was the 2i/c's driver in a Landrover and remember we had to regulate the speed of the entire GMC/Studebaker/Landrover regiment convoy the whole 300km to Tin Can Bay to cater for the poor old blitz.

A regular Army unit would probably have blasted off as normal and given the Blitz a free-running licence to get there in his own time. At worst they would have put him in the last packet so only a few vehicles had to suffer the pain.

Lang